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From Here to Forever
exposed; in vain did the poor creatures embrace the altars; images,
priests, and people were buried in one common ruin.”
Darkening of the Sun and Moon
Twenty-five years later appeared the next sign mentioned in the
prophecy—the darkening of the sun and moon. The time of its ful-
fillment had been definitely pointed out in the Saviour’s conversation
with His disciples upon Olivet. “In those days, after that tribulation,
the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light.”
Mark 13:24
. The 1260 days, or years, terminated in 1798. A quarter
of a century earlier, persecution had almost wholly ceased. Follow-
ing this persecution, the sun was to be darkened. On May 19, 1780,
this prophecy was fulfilled.
An eyewitness in Massachusetts described the event as follows:
“A heavy black cloud spread over the entire sky except a narrow rim
at the horizon, and it was as dark as it usually is at nine o’clock on a
summer evening... .”
[191]
“Warning
>
Fear, anxiety, and awe gradually filled the minds
of the people. Women stood at the door, looking out upon the
dark landscape; men returned from their labor in the fields; the
carpenter left his tools, the blacksmith his forge, the tradesman his
counter. Schools were dismissed, and tremblingly the children fled
homeward. Travelers put up at the nearest farmhouse. ‘What is
coming?’ queried every lip and heart. It seemed as if a hurricane
was about to dash across the land, or as if it was the day of the
consummation of all things.”
“Candles were used; and hearth fires shone as brightly as on a
moonless evening in autumn. ... Fowls retired to their roosts and
went to sleep, cattle gathered at the pasture bars and lowed, frogs
peeped, birds sang their evening songs, and bats flew about. But the
human knew that night had not come... .”
“Congregations came together in many ... places. The texts for
the extemporaneous sermons were invariably those that seemed to
indicate that the darkness was consonant with Scriptural prophecy.
... The darkness was most dense shortly after eleven o’clock.
4
The Essex Antiquarian, April 1899, vol. 3, no. 4, pp. 53, 54.